tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65582244471679056702018-08-28T02:28:47.819-07:00messengersunionMessengers Unionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981473985351256578noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6558224447167905670.post-71292170306059835802011-10-29T03:28:00.000-07:002011-10-29T03:31:41.961-07:00SF Couriers Sick-Out Nov 2nd!<div class="post-header"> </div> ANSWER OCCUPY OAKLAND'S CALL FOR BAY AREA GENERAL STRIKE:<br />SICK-OUT, WALK-OUT, OR SLOW-DOWN WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 2nd!<br /><br />We're SICK of getting screwed by Wall Street and our industry!<br /><br />Occupy Wall Street has morphed into a historic global movement taking a bold stand against economic inequality and the crisis of the "1%". Every day more and more thousands of the 99% step onto the stage of history to call for real and long-overdue change. And now, thousands of ordinary people at Occupy Oakland have called for a general strike. This means a truly historic chance for us in the 99% to stake our claim to a better future. The 1% are starting to listen.<br /><br />Couriers and delivery workers have immense power to weild in this effort. Commerce stands still if we don't move it. That means the 1% is nothing without us. The wealth we create at work keeps flowing up to the few who "own" the companies or "own" the banks, while we struggle harder and harder to make ends meet. We've taken it quietly, hoping to catch a break down the line which never comes.<br /><br />If you suffer from any of these symptoms:<br /><br />- Pay that is low, stagnating, or inconsistent<br />- No health coverage or unaffordable health coverage<br />- Disrespectful treatment or harassment<br />- Work-induced stress and health problems<br />- Unaffordable housing<br />- Mountain of debt<br />- Hunger or want for necessities<br />- Sense of powerlessness or hopelessness for the future<br /><br />then take a "wellness" day to recuperate! Let Wall Street and this rotten industry know you're SICK of getting screwed! Most employees in SF have a right to paid sick days through the SF Paid Sick Leave Policy (2006). It is our right to take the day off to improve our health!<br /><br />This is our historic opportunity to start turning things around. Answer the call for a general strike November 2nd. Walk out, sick out, or slow down.<br /><br />For more info or to join mass demonstrations that day, visit the websites below or call 415-789-MESS(6377).<br /><br />occupysf.org / occupyoakland.org / messengersunion.orgMessengers Unionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981473985351256578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6558224447167905670.post-11317864110794286342011-08-12T19:51:00.000-07:002011-08-12T19:58:10.713-07:00IWW Couriers Union Demands Living Wage for Workers at Speedway Delivery and Messenger Service<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> 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10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Couriers Launch Campaign to Improve Conditions Industry-Wide</b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">SAN FRANCISCO – </b>Friday, August 12, The IWW Couriers Union Organizing Committee publicly asserts the right of workers at Speedway Delivery and Messenger Service, and throughout the courier industry, to a living wage.</p>
<br /><a name='more'></a> <p class="MsoNormal">For many years workers in the courier industry have been subjected to shamefully low or wildly fluctuating compensation from employers. Couriers work day in and day out – working in trucks, on bikes, or on foot – in extremely dangerous conditions, under intense pressure to deliver parcels on time. While most couriers fulfill their ominous task dutifully, few find that their compensation fulfills the task of making ends meet. Living hand to mouth is the norm for the people on whose backs our metropolises thrive.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">At San Francisco-based Speedway Delivery and Messenger Service, conditions are no better. In fact, they’re much worse. Bought by current owners Lori O’Rourke and Charlie Lutge in the 1980s from former owners who refused to deal with then-emerging unionizing efforts, Speedway has pushed working conditions <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">below</i> even non-union standards. Their couriers endure harassment and disrespectful treatment from management, are extorted for equipment replacements, and to top it off, make an insultingly low commission of about 35% per delivery (most companies pay 50%), or as little as $8.00 an hour. That’s almost 20% less than the prevailing San Francisco minimum wage of $9.92 an hour, which is still far too low for most Bay Area workers to live on.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">To inaugurate our campaign to improve working conditions for all workers in the courier industry in the San Francisco Bay area, we have submitted a letter to Speedway owners demanding that they stop breaking minimum wage laws and pay a Living Wage, and to remedy grievances regarding disrespectful treatment at work. It is our aim that these issues will be handled swiftly, respectfully, and to the satisfaction of Speedway’s hard-working couriers by Wednesday, August 17<sup>th</sup> 2011. Further action from the Organizing Committee will then be necessary to resolve the issues at hand.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The IWW Couriers Union is a democratic organization of, by, and for all workers in the parcel delivery industry. By uniting across the industry – drivers, bike couriers, dispatchers and other non-managerial office staff – we are forming an independent organization to improve working conditions and secure our livelihoods. We are affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and international member-run union founded in 1905 for all working people.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.messengersunion.org/">www.MessengersUnion.org</a></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">###</p> Messengers Unionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981473985351256578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6558224447167905670.post-84750570892059530722011-05-25T22:39:00.000-07:002011-08-12T19:59:10.377-07:00What Is 'Union'?<span style="font-style: italic;font-family:trebuchet ms;" >With the decline in the US of industries with traditional union strongholds and a rise in precarious, de-skilled, or informal</span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> workplaces (food service, retail, etc), worker organizing has had to adapt to a very different terrain within which to operate and succeed. In many ways, the messenger-courier industry counts among the most precarious industries (uncertainty of employment, high turnover, low labor standards, etc). So, just as at Starbucks and Jimmy John's, our forms of struggle have had to adapt to a new reality. The old approach of mainstream, "bread and butter" unions has lost traction and can't operate in this new workplace terrain. But new, adaptive forms of "unionism" have had unprecedented success, especially IWW campaigns in the courier industry and even at large chains like Starbucks. </span>
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<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">This leads us to re-examine what "union" really is, in essence. Our work has been to form a practice that overcomes new obstacles to workers coming together, and to disprove the myth that we can't do shit to affect the day-to-day reality of working people. This article tackles these questions, drawing on the experience of IWW organizing, and proves that just as always, we workers still have the power to change our lives and make history.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">This article will appear in the summer 2011 issue of the Dispatch, the IWW courier newsletter.</span></span><b style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">
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<br />WHAT IS 'UNION'?
<br /></b><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">by Mikhail</span><b style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">
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<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">A great many people today find themselves being helplessly sucked into an economic rut. The wreckage of the </span><i style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Great Recession</i><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> lingers, with only band-aid improvements coming down from above. Cut-backs for the working class continue: massive lay-offs, high unemployment, cut after cut in vital public services and education, and so on. We hear in the media of the plight of Main Street's supposedly vast 'middle class'. However, the workers, low-wage earners and the poor, on whose backs Wall Street props itself, constitute the vast majority.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Recently we've heard many hollow reassurances of a gradual recovery. We're fed bogus justifications for the causes of this crisis, and the suffering it's causing for billions of people all over the world. Can we hold out for things to "rebalance" on their own, in time? Can we trust the same system that created this disaster to bail the lot of its disaffected out of it, the way it did for its parasitic financiers? Not if history has anything to show us. An honest look at the past shows us that recessions and depressions are part and parcel to this chaotic economic system. We may have seen the worst of the current crisis for now, but another crisis is sure to follow sooner or later.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">But while the elite continually prioritize profits at the expense of the workers, the workers have shown a historical propensity to struggle in the interest of all. While the "solutions" of the rich and their politicians promise salvation from above (which never comes) if we just vote the right way and sit tight, the workers have their own solutions for taking on their woes directly. During the Great Depression of the 1920s and 30s, they organized neighborhood councils to prevent landlords from evicting poor or unemployed renters. They engaged in militant job actions in their workplaces to demand livable wages &amp; conditions, and won. They even organized the unemployed to join employed workers in struggle because they understood that the gains they made would benefit everyone. And ultimately, they did. Some of the lasting gains won from these struggles in the US include Social Security, the National Labor Relations Act which protects workers who organize on the job, and many of the tenant protections we have today. Those working people understood that when they organized together and flexed their collective "muscle", they were much stronger. It's bold working people like these we have to thank for what livable conditions we have today.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Historically, unions have been an important muscle for the People to fight injustice and secure a life of dignity. So why are unions so maligned to so many working people today? What is the legacy of unions, and what is their importance for us now? What is a "union" really, and what </span><i style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">should </i><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">a union be?</span>
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<br /><b style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Unions - a People's <i>Muscle</i></b>
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<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Unions have been under attack from their adversaries since day one. They've been suppressed by violence, repressed by the law, and slandered and distorted in the mainstream media. Most of the news and information we get from newspapers and TV, especially about unions, is filtered by the same interests who fight the unions. This clearly shapes our ideas about unions, world affairs, and so on. The employing class has waged this intense war on unions because unions threaten their monopoly on resources and power. Control of information is key to maintaining that monopoly.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">But while it's true that distortions and outright fabrications have damaged the image of unions in the public mind, sometimes unions make it easy for their critics to discredit them. One could point to numerous examples of unions or union leaders being corrupt, passive, disconnected from their membership, sell-outs, even racist. And when approached about joining a union, many workers see the mainstream, bureaucratic, top-down unions as just another boss when the one they already have is bad enough. The way many unions relate to their membership (or don't, for that matter) leads one to believe that they'd be better off without a union at all.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">But are they "unions" when they become slow-moving service agents, taking premium payment in your dues? Are they unions when you never see union officers, nothing changes at the workplace, and you're left without a voice still? As unions leave the workplace and become just another service on the market, so many union workers find they have a "union" only in name. More and more, unions take on a "collaborationist" approach that capitulates to bosses rather than empower workers. Union "professionals" negotiate away workers' power in exchange for modest gains. Some unions have always looked out for a tiny minority of better-paid workers in such a way that pits them against other workers on the same job! And the law that workers expect to protect them - with or without a union - instead ensure little more than a headache and a heightened feeling of powerlessness. What are these unions doing around other issues affecting working people, like racism, environmental devastation, unjust wars? For many of them, little if anything.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Labor in the US is belly up. It's lost its edge. It's no wonder union membership in this country has plummeted to less than 15%. This is not the idea of workers' power that earlier unionists fought for, and that many of us are fighting for today. And today more than ever, we need to be building that kind of power. </span>
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<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">"Workers' power" has always been central to the best elements of the labor movement. Power at work and in your daily life. Power to affect change at work and in society directly through collective action. Workers having each others' backs. When we do it together, on our terms, we have power. Through the collective struggle of all working people we can eliminate poverty, attain justice and live with dignity. Look around - we've gotten this far, but we're losing ground, and fast. The problems we face at work, in our neighborhoods and so on are problems faced by working people everywhere, and any genuine solutions to them are gonna have to come from </span><i style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">us</i><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">. We need to start by addressing our grievances directly, ourselves, through collective action on the job. We need support from other workers, and we need to have their backs too. And we need to boost up those workers who've been forgotten at the margins of society and the labor movement and struggle with them for their dignity too. That makes us </span><i style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">all</i><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> strong. That builds workers' power. </span><i style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">That</i><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> is "union". </span>
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<br /><b style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">Real Hope, Real Change</b>
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<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Good thing for us, there is a burgeoning movement of workers calling for a new kind of unionism. Young workers, immigrant workers, workers of color, womyn and queer workers, student workers, union and non-union workers. Retail, service, fast food, transportation, the building trades, heavy industry; skilled workers and, more and more often, workers considered "unskilled". We're disillusioned with the unions as we know them, and we're calling for a new union movement that values democracy, diversity, and a future worth fighting for. And we're not waiting for someone to come along and build it for us. We're not buying the rhetoric of salvation from above. We know that if it worked that way we'd have been saved long ago! We're building it now, and it's not a moment too soon.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Since 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World union has maintained its position on the most progressive edge of the labor movement. We took on injustice wherever we found it, particularly among workers to whom most unions, and much of society, had shut their doors. The historic textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts of 1912 involved mostly women immigrant workers facing speed-ups and deteriorating working conditions. Deemed "unorganizable" by establishment unions, the IWW helped these workers coordinate a large multi-lingual strike against starvation wages and won significant demands. On the docks in 1913 Philadelphia, the IWW led the formation of a strong multiracial longshore union that made great strides for longshore workers and maintained a heavy presence for many years. Marine Transport Industrial Union Local 8 harnessed an industry that had long seemed impenetrable to unions, even though it was characterized by the most brutal working conditions. Local 8's earnest commitment to inter-racial and democratic unionism broke a pattern of racially divisive organizing efforts by other unions, and helped secure much stronger solidarity and job control for </span><i style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">all</i><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> its members.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">This legacy of the IWW has continued for decades. In more recent years we've gained prominence organizing in such low-wage, high turn-over hellholes as Starbucks Coffee. Against many odds, workers at Starbucks locations across the US and elsewhere are leading their own dynamic campaign for a living wage and dignity on the job. Through direct action and union-wide solidarity, they've achieved a pay raise, put abusive managers in check, fought successfully against bigotry and harassment, and made their workplaces safer. The company, in spite of their public face of social responsibility, has attacked the union on the job and in the courts, only to lose every time! That's right - workers can take on behemoths like Starbucks when they act collectively, and succeed. The Starbucks Workers Union grows still as it inspires workers who until now had no hope for a voice at work.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Starbucks is only one of many places you'll find the IWW today. With a presence in many industries and social justice movements already, our objective is to empower workers in all industries to defend themselves, improve their conditions, and transform society to meet the needs of </span><i style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">all</i><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> instead of the</span><i style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"> few</i><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">. Our campaigns address a variety of workers' issues: better pay, shorter hours, affordable healthcare, harassment and abuse, unsafe working conditions, access to education and public services, free speech, police violence, a voice on the job, and more. We address these issues through careful organizing and collective action, and shift the balance of power in favor of the ones doing the work. We take to heart the old motto: "Labor is entitled to all it creates". </span><i style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">All</i><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> workers </span><i style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">everywhere</i><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> - even in your industry - are duly entitled, and can do this work.</span>
<br /><b style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">
<br />"Organize Now, Organize RIGHT!"</b>
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<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">So what can you do to help this work along? Call us today! We'll put you in touch with IWW members in your area, and members who work in your industry. Ask about our Organizer Trainings, where you can get the skills to start organizing in your industry right away. We'll be there to support and mentor you, and you'll be part of a large movement that takes "Solidarity" seriously, and changes lives.</span>
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<br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">We have a lot of work to do, but so much to gain. The future is really in our hands. Won't you join us in this new union movement?</span>Messengers Unionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981473985351256578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6558224447167905670.post-23497512579344998402011-03-12T01:27:00.000-08:002011-03-12T01:27:11.065-08:00Workers Power: It Takes More Than Direct Action<a href="http://forworkerspower.blogspot.com/2010/11/it-takes-more-than-direct-action.html?spref=bl">Workers Power: It Takes More Than Direct Action</a>: "It Takes More Than Direct Action by Colin Bossen Over the last seven years I have been involved in three major IWW organizing campaigns. T..."Messengers Unionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981473985351256578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6558224447167905670.post-31058657608637331102011-01-29T23:58:00.000-08:002011-01-30T00:00:42.149-08:00London organizes, imparts lessons<h1 class="title"><a href="http://libcom.org/library/the-couriers-are-revolting-the-despatch-industry-workers-union-1989-1992">The Despatch Industry Workers Union, 1989-1992</a></h1>Messengers Unionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981473985351256578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6558224447167905670.post-21897994019252942512011-01-24T23:32:00.000-08:002011-01-24T23:35:57.506-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fib8IPe7kZo/TT59Mj80f9I/AAAAAAAAADc/FEmGBYhneLg/s1600/simecajujuy.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fib8IPe7kZo/TT59Mj80f9I/AAAAAAAAADc/FEmGBYhneLg/s320/simecajujuy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5566023844238753746" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://messmagazine.net/mess/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=163&amp;Itemid=59">Couriers union in Argentina</a>: Brief article about an organizing victory from rank and file messengers in Argentina in 2006.Messengers Unionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981473985351256578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6558224447167905670.post-39866091448636841722011-01-24T20:13:00.001-08:002011-01-24T20:14:21.589-08:00messengersunion.orgMessengersunion.org now redirects to this. Tell your friends. Who aren't bosses. ;)Messengers Unionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981473985351256578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6558224447167905670.post-70087597449170944772011-01-03T00:53:00.000-08:002011-01-03T01:11:05.465-08:00Check it out - issue #3 of our newsletter<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fib8IPe7kZo/TSGPGkLYJWI/AAAAAAAAAC4/2E8o2x9hCn4/s1600/dispatch%2Bad.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fib8IPe7kZo/TSGPGkLYJWI/AAAAAAAAAC4/2E8o2x9hCn4/s320/dispatch%2Bad.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557880758105285986" border="0" /></a>News, views, tirades and a fun crossword from the point of view of America's congested avenues and smelly loading docks. Important material for couriers who are fed up *and* ready for change. Finally something stimulating to pass the time waiting for that freight elevator!<br /><br /><br />Get in touch to get a copy or a bundle for your area.Messengers Unionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981473985351256578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6558224447167905670.post-12763518129761001762011-01-02T16:28:00.001-08:002011-01-02T16:29:17.476-08:00Happy new year, etcThis is an online placeholder for us. Messengersunion.org is in the works. Check out what we're up to in the meantime here. And contact us if you're interested in it.Messengers Unionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00981473985351256578noreply@blogger.com